Software application optimization

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to software application optimization. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to software applicationoptimization. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

BACKGROUND

In many software applications, the performance of the application isdependent on the manner in which the application is compiled. Forexample, in Java Virtual Machine (JVM)-based runtimes that usejust-in-time (JIT) compilation, the performance of various featuresassociated with underlying code is dependent on whether code is runningcompiled or interpreted. In such cases, the performance of the compiledcode may further depend on its compilation tier and/or compilation levelwithin a tier.

Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure help identifycode of a software application (e.g., running interpreted or compiled atlower compilation tiers) that can be compiled (or complied at a higherlevel) to improve speed and efficiency of the application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve to provideexamples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia. These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detailthat may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from thespirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an example of an environment inwhich an on-demand database service can be used according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating examples of implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and examples of interconnections between theseelements according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of components of asoftware application optimization system according to various aspects ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a process accordingto various aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatuses, computer-readable storage media, andmethods according to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosed implementationsmay be practiced without some or all of the specific details provided.In other instances, certain process or method operations, also referredto herein as “blocks,” have not been described in detail in order toavoid unnecessarily obscuring the disclosed implementations. Otherimplementations and applications also are possible, and as such, thefollowing examples should not be taken as definitive or limiting eitherin scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese disclosed implementations are described in sufficient detail toenable one skilled in the art to practice the implementations, it is tobe understood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made to the disclosedimplementations without departing from their spirit and scope. Forexample, the blocks of the methods shown and described herein are notnecessarily performed in the order indicated in some otherimplementations. Additionally, in some other implementations, thedisclosed methods may include more or fewer blocks than are described.As another example, some blocks described herein as separate blocks maybe combined in some other implementations. Conversely, what may bedescribed herein as a single block may be implemented in multiple blocksin some other implementations. Additionally, the conjunction “or” isintended herein in the inclusive sense where appropriate unlessotherwise indicated; that is, the phrase “A, B or C” is intended toinclude the possibilities of “A,” “B,” “C,” “A and B,” “B and C,” “A andC” and “A, B and C.”

Some implementations described and referenced herein are directed tosystems, apparatus, computer-implemented methods and computer-readablestorage media for optimizing software applications.

I. System Examples

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations. The environment 10 includes user systems 12, a network14, a database system 16 (also referred to herein as a “cloud-basedsystem”), a processor system 17, an application platform 18, a networkinterface 20, tenant database 22 for storing tenant data 23, systemdatabase 24 for storing system data 25, program code 26 for implementingvarious functions of the system 16, and process space 28 for executingdatabase system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as runningapplications as part of an application hosting service. In some otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these components orsystems, or may have other components or systems instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

In some implementations, the environment 10 is an environment in whichan on-demand database service exists. An on-demand database service,such as that which can be implemented using the system 16, is a servicethat is made available to users outside of the enterprise(s) that own,maintain or provide access to the system 16. As described above, suchusers generally do not need to be concerned with building or maintainingthe system 16. Instead, resources provided by the system 16 may beavailable for such users' use when the users need services provided bythe system 16; that is, on the demand of the users. Some on-demanddatabase services can store information from one or more tenants intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and software of a databasesystem may be shared by one or more customers or tenants. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. Adatabase image can include one or more database objects. A relationaldatabase management system (RDBMS) or the equivalent can execute storageand retrieval of information against the database object(s).

Application platform 18 can be a framework that allows the applicationsof system 16 to execute, such as the hardware or software infrastructureof the system 16. In some implementations, the application platform 18enables the creation, management and execution of one or moreapplications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

In some implementations, the system 16 implements a web-based customerrelationship management (CRM) system. For example, in some suchimplementations, the system 16 includes application servers configuredto implement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, renderable web pages and documents and otherinformation to and from user systems 12 and to store to, and retrievefrom, a database system related data, objects, and Web page content. Insome MTS implementations, data for multiple tenants may be stored in thesame physical database object in tenant database 22. In some suchimplementations, tenant data is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant database 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logically separatefrom that of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access toanother tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared. The system16 also implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRMapplication. For example, the system 16 can provide tenant access tomultiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRMapplication. User (or third party developer) applications, which may ormay not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform 18.The application platform 18 manages the creation and storage of theapplications into one or more database objects and the execution of theapplications in one or more virtual machines in the process space of thesystem 16.

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (forexample, in a server farm located in a single building or campus), orthey may be distributed at locations remote from one another (forexample, one or more servers located in city A and one or more serverslocated in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or morelogically or physically connected servers distributed locally or acrossone or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” ismeant to refer to a computing device or system, including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (for example, OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art.It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as part of a single database, a distributeddatabase, a collection of distributed databases, a database withredundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and caninclude a distributed database or storage network and associatedprocessing intelligence.

The network 14 can be or include any network or combination of networksof systems or devices that communicate with one another. For example,the network 14 can be or include any one or any combination of a LAN(local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network,wireless network, cellular network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. The network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the “Internet” (with a capital “I”).The Internet will be used in many of the examples herein. However, itshould be understood that the networks that the disclosedimplementations can use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is afrequently implemented protocol.

The user systems 12 can communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, ata higher network level, other common Internet protocols to communicate,such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, eachuser system 12 can include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “webbrowser” or simply a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals toand from an HTTP server of the system 16. Such an HTTP server can beimplemented as the sole network interface 20 between the system 16 andthe network 14, but other techniques can be used in addition to orinstead of these techniques. In some implementations, the networkinterface 20 between the system 16 and the network 14 includes loadsharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors tobalance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a numberof servers. In MTS implementations, each of the servers can have accessto the MTS data; however, other alternative configurations may be usedinstead.

The user systems 12 can be implemented as any computing device(s) orother data processing apparatus or systems usable by users to access thedatabase system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can be a desktopcomputer, a work station, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, ahandheld computing device, a mobile cellular phone (for example, a“smartphone”), or any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, wireless accessprotocol (WAP)-enabled device, or other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network. Theterms “user system” and “computing device” are used interchangeablyherein with one another and with the term “computer.” As describedabove, each user system 12 typically executes an HTTP client, forexample, a web browsing (or simply “browsing”) program, such as a webbrowser based on the WebKit platform, Microsoft's Internet Explorerbrowser, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Opera's browser, or Mozilla'sFirefox browser, or the like, allowing a user (for example, a subscriberof on-demand services provided by the system 16) of the user system 12to access, process and view information, pages and applicationsavailable to it from the system 16 over the network 14.

Each user system 12 also typically includes one or more user inputdevices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, a touchscreen, a pen or stylus or the like, for interacting with a graphicaluser interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display (for example,a monitor screen, liquid crystal display (LCD), light-emitting diode(LED) display, among other possibilities) of the user system 12 inconjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by the system 16 or other systems or servers. For example, theuser interface device can be used to access data and applications hostedby system 16, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwiseallow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented toa user. As discussed above, implementations are suitable for use withthe Internet, although other networks can be used instead of or inaddition to the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtualprivate network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or thelike.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 can be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user ofsuch user system. For example, where a salesperson is using a particularuser system 12 to interact with the system 16, that user system can havethe capacities allotted to the salesperson. However, while anadministrator is using that user system 12 to interact with the system16, that user system can have the capacities allotted to thatadministrator. Where a hierarchical role model is used, users at onepermission level can have access to applications, data, and databaseinformation accessible by a lower permission level user, but may nothave access to certain applications, database information, and dataaccessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different usersgenerally will have different capabilities with regard to accessing andmodifying application and database information, depending on the users'respective security or permission levels (also referred to as“authorizations”).

According to some implementations, each user system 12 and some or allof its components are operator-configurable using applications, such asa browser, including computer code executed using a central processingunit (CPU) such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly,the system 16 (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than oneis present) and all of its components can be operator-configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using the processor system17, which may be implemented to include a CPU, which may include anIntel Pentium® processor or the like, or multiple CPUs.

The system 16 includes tangible computer-readable media havingnon-transitory instructions stored thereon/in that are executable by orused to program a server or other computing system (or collection ofsuch servers or computing systems) to perform some of the implementationof processes described herein. For example, computer program code 26 canimplement instructions for operating and configuring the system 16 tointercommunicate and to process web pages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein. In some implementations, thecomputer code 26 can be downloadable and stored on a hard disk, but theentire program code, or portions thereof, also can be stored in anyother volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known,such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storingprogram code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks,optical discs, digital versatile disks (DVD), compact disks (CD),microdrives, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards,nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other type ofcomputer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructions ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, for example, over the Internet, or from another server, as iswell known, or transmitted over any other existing network connection asis well known (for example, extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (for example, TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS,Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated thatcomputer code for the disclosed implementations can be realized in anyprogramming language that can be executed on a server or other computingsystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram with examples of implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and examples of interconnections between theseelements according to some implementations. That is, FIG. 1B alsoillustrates environment 10, but FIG. 1B, various elements of the system16 and various interconnections between such elements are shown withmore specificity according to some more specific implementations.Additionally, in FIG. 1B, the user system 12 includes a processor system12A, a memory system 12B, an input system 12C, and an output system 12D.The processor system 12A can include any suitable combination of one ormore processors. The memory system 12B can include any suitablecombination of one or more memory devices. The input system 12C caninclude any suitable combination of input devices, such as one or moretouchscreen interfaces, keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras,or interfaces to networks. The output system 12D can include anysuitable combination of output devices, such as one or more displaydevices, printers, or interfaces to networks.

In FIG. 1B, the network interface 20 is implemented as a set of HTTPapplication servers 100 ₁-100 _(N). Each application server 100, alsoreferred to herein as an “app server”, is configured to communicate withtenant database 22 and the tenant data 23 therein, as well as systemdatabase 24 and the system data 25 therein, to serve requests receivedfrom the user systems 12. The tenant data 23 can be divided intoindividual tenant storage spaces 40, which can be physically orlogically arranged or divided. Within each tenant storage space 40, userstorage 42 and application metadata 44 can similarly be allocated foreach user. For example, a copy of a user's most recently used (MRU)items can be stored to user storage 42. Similarly, a copy of MRU itemsfor an entire organization that is a tenant can be stored to tenantstorage space 40.

The process space 28 includes system process space 102, individualtenant process spaces 48 and a tenant management process space 46. Theapplication platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications. Such applications and others can be saved as metadata intotenant database 22 by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers asone or more tenant process spaces 48 managed by tenant managementprocess 46, for example. Invocations to such applications can be codedusing PL/SOQL 34, which provides a programming language style interfaceextension to API 32. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL languageimplementations is discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,730,478, titled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPEDAPPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by CraigWeissman, issued on Jun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety and for all purposes. Invocations to applications can bedetected by one or more system processes, which manage retrievingapplication metadata 44 for the subscriber making the invocation andexecuting the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.

The system 16 of FIG. 1B also includes a user interface (UI) 30 and anapplication programming interface (API) 32 to system 16 residentprocesses to users or developers at user systems 12. In some otherimplementations, the environment 10 may not have the same elements asthose listed above or may have other elements instead of, or in additionto, those listed above.

Each application server 100 can be communicably coupled with tenantdatabase 22 and system database 24, for example, having access to tenantdata 23 and system data 25, respectively, via a different networkconnection. For example, one application server 100 ₁ can be coupled viathe network 14 (for example, the Internet), another application server100 _(N-1) can be coupled via a direct network link, and anotherapplication server 100 _(N) can be coupled by yet a different networkconnection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) areexamples of typical protocols that can be used for communicating betweenapplication servers 100 and the system 16. However, it will be apparentto one skilled in the art that other transport protocols can be used tooptimize the system 16 depending on the network interconnections used.

In some implementations, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant of the system 16. Because it can be desirable to be able to addand remove application servers 100 from the server pool at any time andfor various reasons, in some implementations there is no server affinityfor a user or organization to a specific application server 100. In somesuch implementations, an interface system implementing a load balancingfunction (for example, an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicablycoupled between the application servers 100 and the user systems 12 todistribute requests to the application servers 100. In oneimplementation, the load balancer uses a least-connections algorithm toroute user requests to the application servers 100. Other examples ofload balancing algorithms, such as round robin andobserved-response-time, also can be used. For example, in someinstances, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit threedifferent application servers 100, and three requests from differentusers could hit the same application server 100. In this manner, by wayof example, system 16 can be a multi-tenant system in which system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

In one example of a storage use case, one tenant can be a company thatemploys a sales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manageaspects of their sales. A user can maintain contact data, leads data,customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data,etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (for example,in tenant database 22). In an example of an MTS arrangement, because allof the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report,transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a usersystem 12 having little more than network access, the user can managehis or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different usersystems. For example, when a salesperson is visiting a customer and thecustomer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtaincritical updates regarding that customer while waiting for the customerto arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data can be stored separately from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data can beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by several users or all ofthe users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there can besome data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated at thetenant level while other data structures can be managed at the userlevel. Because an MTS can support multiple tenants including possiblecompetitors, the MTS can have security protocols that keep data,applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenantsmay opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system,redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that can beimplemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, the system 16 also can maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data caninclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In some implementations, the user systems 12 (which also can be clientsystems) communicate with the application servers 100 to request andupdate system-level and tenant-level data from the system 16. Suchrequests and updates can involve sending one or more queries to tenantdatabase 22 or system database 24. The system 16 (for example, anapplication server 100 in the system 16) can automatically generate oneor more SQL statements (for example, one or more SQL queries) designedto access the desired information. System database 24 can generate queryplans to access the requested data from the database. The term “queryplan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined orcustomizable categories. A “table” is one representation of a dataobject, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description ofobjects and custom objects according to some implementations. It shouldbe understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeablyherein. Each table generally contains one or more data categorieslogically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each rowor element of a table can contain an instance of data for each categorydefined by the fields. For example, a CRM database can include a tablethat describes a customer with fields for basic contact information suchas name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table candescribe a purchase order, including fields for information such ascustomer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some MTS implementations,standard entity tables can be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities can include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. As used herein, the term “entity” alsomay be used interchangeably with “object” and “table.”

In some MTS implementations, tenants are allowed to create and storecustom objects, or may be allowed to customize standard entities orobjects, for example by creating custom fields for standard objects,including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In someimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

II. Software Application Optimization

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be used to monitor theperformance of a software application to identify portions of theapplication (and the underlying code) that can be optimized to improvethe performance of the application. In some embodiments, for example,the system monitors JVM call stacks which (on each frame) includemetadata about whether the frame has been compiled, and (if so) at whatlevel of compilation.

In the example of JVM applications, code can be run in an interpretedstate where the code is interpreted by a just-in-time (JIT) compiler, orthe code can be compiled at different tiers (e.g., 1, 2, . . . n) and atdifferent levels within a tier. In general, interpreted code tends torun more slowly than compiled code, and code compiled at a relativelyhigher tier (e.g., tier 4) runs more quickly than code compiled at arelatively lower tier (e.g., tier 1).

Traditional compilers (such as the JIT compiler in JVM) use profileguided optimization techniques to optimize an application. Typically,code that is “hot” (i.e., where a lot of CPU time is spent) should getcompiled at the highest compilation tier, but methods can getde-optimized for a number of reasons and, as a consequence, end uprunning interpreted or at a lower compilation tier. As a result, manysoftware applications may run less quickly and efficiently than theywould if such code were properly optimized.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized to find the “hot”methods (where CPU time is being spent) but that are not compiled at thehigher compilation tiers. Embodiments of the present disclosure can alsoidentify other optimization opportunities, such as identifying code forinlining (a compiler optimization where, for example, a function call isreplaced with the body of the called function). Inlining code for amethod may help improve the speed and efficiency of the application evenwhen the methods is otherwise compiled at the highest compilation tier.

In some embodiments, the JVM is modified to include the compiled statemetadata per frame of a software application when the call stack of theapplication is returned. As described in more detail below, the systemcan analyze the portions (e.g., methods) of the software application todetermine, for example, whether all methods are being compiled at thehighest compilation tiers (since it may be wasteful to compile methodswhich do not consume many CPU cycles at the highest compilation tier),as well as whether there are methods compiled at lower tiers that shouldbe compiled at a higher tier to improve the efficiency of theapplication.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of components of asoftware application optimization system according to variousembodiments. In this example, the JVM component 205 is a Java VirtualMachine component to run applications written in Java and otherlanguages that can be run using Java bytecodes. The profiler 210 is anagent that periodically samples or traces execution paths by sendingsignals or calling an application program interface (API) in the JVM205. The JVM 205 then sends information about thread stacks to theprofiler 210. In alternate embodiments, the profiler 210 may be anembedded agent in the JVM 205.

The profiler 210 sends the information about the thread stacks to areport generator 215, which generates a report including, for example,information on hot methods (i.e., methods where considerable CPU time isspent) and metadata on compilation levels and optimizations. In someembodiments, the report generator 215 may be embedded as a componentwithin the profiler 210.

The report generator 215 may transmit a report in a variety of differentformats to a variety of different systems and individuals. In theexample shown in FIG. 2, the report generator provides a report (e.g.,in a text format) to software developers 220 (e.g., individuals orgroups who generated the code or who otherwise have the ability orresponsibility to modify the application run on the JVM. The developerscan modify the application based on the report generated to help the JVMJIT compilers to compile hot code in the application at the highestcompilation tiers.

The report generator 215 may also provide a report (e.g., in amachine-readable format) to the autotune component 230. The autotunecomponent 230 automatically tunes JVM configuration parameters based onimpact to the application's runtime. The autotune component 230 wouldfind optimal values for JVM configuration parameters based on input fromthe report generated.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a process 300according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Any combinationand/or subset of the elements of the methods depicted herein (includingmethod 300 in FIG. 3) may be combined with each other, selectivelyperformed or not performed based on various conditions, repeated anydesired number of times, and practiced in any suitable order and inconjunction with any suitable system, device, and/or process. Themethods described and depicted herein can be implemented in any suitablemanner, such as through software operating on one or more computersystems. The software may comprise computer-readable instructions storedin a tangible computer-readable medium (such as the memory of a computersystem) and can be executed by one or more processors to perform themethods of various embodiments.

Process 300 includes identifying code frames for a software application(305), retrieving a set of metrics collected for the softwareapplication (310), determining, based on the metrics, a compilationstate for each code frame (315), determining a respective weightassociated with the respective compilation state for each respectivecode frame (320), and generating an optimization report (325).

A computer system (e.g., implemented by system 16 illustrated in FIGS.1A and 1B) may perform the operations of the processes described herein,including the processes shown in FIG. 3. Computer system 16 may performportions of such processes alone, or in conjunction with other systems(e.g., by exchanging electronic communications over network 14 with auser system 12 or other device).

In some embodiments, code frames for a software application may beidentified (305) by analyzing code frames in thread stacks associatedwith the application. In some embodiments, the frames in the threadstacks are annotated to capture the compiled state metadata. Forexample, in the OpenJDK HotSpot implementation of the JVM, this canachieved by modifying the stack frame associated with each method torecord the compilation information for those methods.

In a particular example, consider a software application A comprising:(1) class Foo with methods a, b, c; (2) class Bar with methods x, y, z;and (3) thread Baz which runs code from Foo and Bar. In this example,application A starts thread Baz, while runtime R hosts application A andprofile profiler P acquires metrics such as CPU usage and profiling datafor the application. In some embodiments, the metrics may include anamount of processor execution time for a thread of the softwareapplication, and/or a latency associated with a thread of the softwareapplication.

In this example, an example of a stack trace (ST1) for Thread Baz isshown as follows:

-   “Thread-Baz” id=100 in RUNNABLE←Header with thread information    -   at Foo.c (Foo.java:100) [i]←Stack frame    -   at Foo.b (Foo.java:200) [c2(4)]    -   at Foo.a (Foo.java:300) [c1(3)]    -   at Bar.z (Bar.java:50) [c1(3)]

In the example of the stack trace above, the stack frame format is: at<Class>.<method> (<Filename>:<line number>) [Metadata]. The Metadatasection contains information about the compilation state (an interpretedstate or a compiled state) for each respective method in the code frame.If compiled, the metadata further describes the enumerated compilationtiers and levels within the tiers. For example, the metadata in theexample above is as follows: i—interpreted; c1—compilation tier 1;c2—compilation tier 2; c1(3)—tier 1 level 3; c2(4)—tier 2 level 4. Insome embodiments, the metadata may include respective compilationinformation for each respective method associated with a code frame.

The system may retrieve the metrics (310) described in each frame of thestack trace, and determine (e.g., based on the metadata fields for eachframe) the compilation state (315) for each respective code frame. Insome embodiments, “hot” methods (as described above) can be identifiedby profiling stack traces either with periodic thread dumps or with aCPU profiler in order to identify methods that should be compiled at ahigher compilation tier or tier level than they are currently compiled.For example, the system may analyze the output from a profiler todetermine that 60% of the CPU time was recorded in method Foo.c, andalso determine (based on the stack frame information shown previously)that Foo.c is running in the interpreter without any compileroptimizations.

Method calls have an overhead, and inlining is a compiler optimizationthat expands the body of the callee method in the caller. However,inlining large methods can cause code size to increase and causeinstruction cache misses, which in turn may lead to a performancedegradation. Traditional compilers include heuristics to inline methodsthat considers these factors, but an application may actually performfaster and more efficiently when larger code portions are inlined. Usingconventional compilation techniques, however, such code will not beinlined by a compiler due to its size.

Continuing with the previous example, Foo.b calls Foo.c. Foo.c is a hotmethod and could be called frequently. The method call overhead can bereduced if Foo.c were to be inlined in Foo.b but the compiler heuristicmay have decided that Foo.c was too big to inline.

In some embodiments, the system may determine weights (320) for thevarious code frames of an application and generate an optimizationreport (325) that identifies methods for frames that were too big toinline. From FIG. 2, a report may be provided to human developers 220and software optimizers such as autotune 230 to manually inline a methodand/or reduce the size of methods and change configuration values toinfluence the inlining heuristics to better suit the application.

In one example, an embodiment is used to identify opportunities toreduce CPU utilization of application A when hosted in runtime R. Duringthe course of business hours, R is constantly sampled by profiler P. Pcaptures metrics (310) such as CPU time per thread, as well as callstacks at some arbitrary interval. The captured samples are placed in toset S. Code frames may be identified (305), and their compilation statedetermined (310), based on the information in the call stacks.

At the end of a predetermined time period, the sample set S is analyzedto look for top-k code paths that were sampled most frequently fromprofiler output, PO1. A heuristic function is applied to assign weightsfor a combination of CPU percentage/sample counts and the framecompilation state (interpreted, C1 . . . Cn), where frames runninginterpreted would have a bigger weight than frames compiled with Cn.

The weight for a frame may be determined (320) according to a variety ofdifferent criteria. In one embodiment, determining the weight associatedwith the respective compilation state for a respective code frame isperformed according to: Weight(CPU)*Weight(compilationtier)*Weight(compilation level). Where the weight for the compilationtier and level would go up at lower compilation tiers and levels and theweight for CPU would increase with an increasing percentage of CPUsamples collected in those methods.

In another embodiment, the weight may be determined according to:Weight(CPU)=0.01 for each CPU sample percentage. Accordingly, if 60% ofCPU samples were recorded in Foo.c, the CPU weight for Foo.c would be0.6.

In another embodiment, the weight may be determined according to:Weight(compilation tier)=10{circumflex over ( )}(n−tier), where ‘n’ isthe maximum number of compilation tiers available in the system.Consider a case where the maximum number of compilation tiers availableis 2, then for interpreted code, which would be tier 0, the weight wouldbe 10(2−0)=100. For C1, which would be tier 1, the weight would be10{circumflex over ( )}(2−1)=10. For C2, which would be tier 2, theweight would be 10{circumflex over ( )}(2−2)=1.

In another embodiment, the weight may be determined according to:Weight(compilation level within the tier)=(m−level)+1, where ‘m’ is themaximum compilation level within the tier. Consider a case where theinterpreter has only 1 level and all compilation tiers have 4 levelswithin them. Then for interpreted code, the weight would be (1−1)+1=1.For C1/C2, level 1, the weight would be (4−1)+1=4. For C1/C2, level 4,the weight would be (4−4)+1=1.

The system may generate an optimization report (325) that includes alist of frames, sorted by weight, for potential optimization to reduceCPU consumption and latency. From the example profiler output, PO1, theweights would be calculated as follows:

-   Foo.c—CPU samples—60%, interpreted    0.6*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−0))*((1−1)+1)=0.6*100*1=60-   Foo.b—CPU samples—50%, c2(4)    0.5*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−2))*((4−4)+1)=0.5*1*1=0.5-   Foo.a—CPU samples—50%, c1(3)    0.5*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−1))*((4−3)+1)=0.5*10*2=10-   Bar.z—CPU samples—50%, c1(3)    0.5*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−1))*((4−3)+1)=0.5*10*2=10-   Bar.y—CPU samples—20%, c1(3)    0.2*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−1))*((4−3)+1)=0.2*10*2=4-   Bar.x—CPU samples—(10+20=30%), c1(3)    0.5*(10{circumflex over ( )}(2−1))*((4−3)+1)=0.5*10*2=10

The sorted list would then produce the following output:

-   Foo.c—60-   Foo.a—10-   Bar.z—10-   Bar.x—6-   Bar.y—4-   Foo.b—0.5

Based on the above output, either developers or a system like autotunecould modify the method and/or the compiler parameters to get Foo.ccompiled at higher compilation tiers and potentially improve theperformance by orders of magnitude. Similarly, the report generatorcould also help surface a recommendation for developers to reduce thesize of Foo.c, which did not get inlined due to its method size, so itcan be inlined or adjust the inline code threshold in the compiler sobigger methods can get inlined.

The specific details of the specific aspects of implementationsdisclosed herein may be combined in any suitable manner withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.However, other implementations may be directed to specificimplementations relating to each individual aspect, or specificcombinations of these individual aspects. Additionally, while thedisclosed examples are often described herein with reference to animplementation in which an on-demand database service environment isimplemented in a system having an application server providing a frontend for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the present implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases or deployment on application servers. Implementations may bepracticed using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBMand the like without departing from the scope of the implementationsclaimed.

It should also be understood that some of the disclosed implementationscan be embodied in the form of various types of hardware, software,firmware, or combinations thereof, including in the form of controllogic, and using such hardware or software in a modular or integratedmanner. Other ways or methods are possible using hardware and acombination of hardware and software. Additionally, any of the softwarecomponents or functions described in this application can be implementedas software code to be executed by one or more processors using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, existing or object-oriented techniques. The softwarecode can be stored as a computer- or processor-executable instructionsor commands on a physical non-transitory computer-readable medium.Examples of suitable media include random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), magnetic media such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, oran optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digital versatiledisk), flash memory, and the like, or any combination of such storage ortransmission devices. Computer-readable media encoded with thesoftware/program code may be packaged with a compatible device orprovided separately from other devices (for example, via Internetdownload). Any such computer-readable medium may reside on or within asingle computing device or an entire computer system, and may be amongother computer-readable media within a system or network. A computersystem, or other computing device, may include a monitor, printer, orother suitable display for providing any of the results mentioned hereinto a user.

While some implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a processor; and memorycoupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed bythe processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:identifying a plurality of code frames for a software application;retrieving a set of metrics collected for the software application;determining, based on the set of metrics, a compilation state for eachrespective code frame; determining a respective weight associated withthe respective compilation state for each respective code frame, whereindetermining the respective weight for each respective code frameincludes applying a function to assign the respective weight to therespective code frame based on a processor utilization metric associatedwith the respective code frame and the compilation state of therespective code frame, and wherein the compilation state for a codeframe from the plurality of code frames is a compiled state having anenumerated tier and an enumerated level within the tier; and generatingan optimization report comprising a list of the code frames and therespective weight for each code frame.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe compilation state for a code frame from the plurality of code framesis an interpreted state or a compiled state.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein determining the compilation state for the code frames includesanalyzing respective metadata associated with each respective codeframe.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the metadata for a code frameincludes respective compilation information for each respective methodassociated with the code frame.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein theset of metrics includes one or more of: an amount of processor executiontime for a thread of the software application, and a latency associatedwith a thread of the software application.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein generating the optimization report includes identifying aportion of the software application that was not compiled inline due toa size of one or more methods associated with a code frame.
 7. Atangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system toperform operations comprising: identifying a plurality of code framesfor a software application; retrieving a set of metrics collected forthe software application; determining, based on the set of metrics, acompilation state for each respective code frame; determining arespective weight associated with the respective compilation state foreach respective code frame, wherein determining the respective weightfor each respective code frame includes applying a function to assignthe respective weight to the respective code frame based on a processorutilization metric associated with the respective code frame and thecompilation state of the respective code frame, and wherein thecompilation state for a code frame from the plurality of code frames isa compiled state having an enumerated tier and an enumerated levelwithin the tier; and generating an optimization report comprising a listof the code frames and the respective weight for each code frame.
 8. Thetangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, whereinthe compilation state for a code frame from the plurality of code framesis an interpreted state or a compiled state.
 9. The tangible,non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein determiningthe compilation state for the code frames includes analyzing respectivemetadata associated with each respective code frame.
 10. The tangible,non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the metadatafor a code frame includes respective compilation information for eachrespective method associated with the code frame.
 11. The tangible,non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set ofmetrics includes one or more of: an amount of processor execution timefor a thread of the software application, and a latency associated witha thread of the software application.
 12. The tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein generating the optimizationreport includes identifying a portion of the software application thatwas not compiled inline due to a size of one or more methods associatedwith a code frame.
 13. A method comprising: identifying, by a computersystem, a plurality of code frames for a software application;retrieving, by the computer system, a set of metrics collected for thesoftware application; determining, by the computer system based on theset of metrics, a compilation state for each respective code frame;determining, by the computer system, a respective weight associated withthe respective compilation state for each respective code frame, whereindetermining the respective weight for each respective code frameincludes applying a function to assign the respective weight to therespective code frame based on a processor utilization metric associatedwith the respective code frame and the compilation state of therespective code frame, and wherein the compilation state for a codeframe from the plurality of code frames is a compiled state having anenumerated tier and an enumerated level within the tier; and generating,by the computer system, an optimization report comprising a list of thecode frames and the respective weight for each code frame.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the compilation state for a code frame fromthe plurality of code frames is an interpreted state or a compiledstate.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the compilationstate for the code frames includes analyzing respective metadataassociated with each respective code frame.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the metadata for a code frame includes respective compilationinformation for each respective method associated with the code frame.17. The method of claim 13, wherein the set of metrics includes one ormore of: an amount of processor execution time for a thread of thesoftware application, and a latency associated with a thread of thesoftware application.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein generating theoptimization report includes identifying a portion of the softwareapplication that was not compiled inline due to a size of one or moremethods associated with a code frame.